Three Crises

Mr. Lloyd George has visited the French Riviera for his health al most every winter; but this year, for the first time since his eclipse as Premier, he was officially welcomed and feted near Saint Raphael by the local Prefect and representatives of the French Government. "I was astonished," said Mr. Lloyd George afterwards. "I tell you they'll be naming a street after me next. . . ."

The so courteous Prefect, M. Cameau, did not welcome Mr. Lloyd George under the mistaken impression that his power is on the rebound in England. It is not. But the British coal strike has disrupted the business of thousands of Britons who would formerly have been able to afford a winter vacation on the Riviera. They have not come to Cannes, Nice, "Mo te,"* or Mentone. Therefore the arrival of Mr. Lloyd George was an occasion for demonstrating that tourists are excessively welcome.

Cold and Cash. A prolonged and most exceptional cold wave has smitten France during the past month, thus still further hurting Riviera tourist trade. Twenty persons died of the cold in France last week, when the thermometer fell to 14DEG above zero in several cities./- Moreover, Signor Mussolini has lured many tourists from the French to the Italian Riviera by " cutting down Italian tourist taxes while those in France remain high. Finally the doubling of the gold value of the franc in five months (TIME, July 26) has scared away still more tourists and produced a serious fiscal crisis.

Industrial Crisis. Last week, due to the higher cost of francs, U. S. importers canceled large orders for French laces. Steel importers canceled so many orders that the Cartel d'Acier (French Steel Trust) cut production scales to 2,000 tons monthly from 10,000 tons. Similar curtailments in other lines threw some 30,000 Frenchmen out of work during the past month.

Political Crisis. Such industrial hardships came fatefully on the eve of elections affecting one-third of the French Senate which will be held in mid-January. The present Senate is predominantly Conservative and has stood as the rock upon which Premier Poincare has based his efforts to increase the value of the franc.

Now that these efforts have succeeded with almost disastrous rapidity, the more radical political groups have begun to whisper among the electorate that "Poincare and the Bankers' Senate" are increasing the value of their money at the expense of unemployment for the worker.

Side by side with this attack on the Conservative element, agitation developed last week to expel foreign workers from France and thus " leave more work for Frenchmen. Fulminating upon this point the potent French League of the Rights of Man, a radical organization, issued a manifesto last week:

"The French state department must take measures to prevent the formation of foreign colonies in France. France should regulate its immigration in the same way as does the United States.

"In southwestern France Italians are installed with considerable capital furnished by the Italian government or by private Italian industries. In certain departments they already own a third of the territory, having their own churches and schools and even their own administration under Italian police. In the coal mining regions of northern France, Poles inhabit entire villages where no one speaks French. They have their priests, their doctors and their schools."

Revalorize or Stabilize. The real crux of the situation last week was the general uncertainty as to whether Premier Poincare will attempt to revalorize the franc up to its pre-War parity, or whether his tentative stabilization of the franc at its present value* (TIME, Jan. 3) will be continued.

*The invariable Anglicism for Monte Carlo.

/-Lisbon, Portuguese capital, suffered last week the first snowfall in may years, a tragedy in that impoverished region where thousands have no homes except the streets.

*The Bank of France has pegged the franc at 25 to the dollar by announcing that "until further notice" it will buy or sell at that rate.